Supportive Health & Human Services

The commissioners’ commitment to serving Every Resident Every Day is born out by the many ways that their various agencies provide supportive health and human services to our neighbors throughout the year.

This is one of the ways in which residents interact most frequently and are closest to their county government, with more than a third of county residents served by Job and Family Services, the Office on Aging, or our Child Support Enforcement agency each year, and nearly 40% of the county's All Funds budget devoted to these kinds of services.

The Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services is the agency responsible for financial and social service programs designed to ensure that none of our residents are forced to go without basic essentials like food, clothing, shelter, and medical care.

During the pandemic, JFS has helped to distribute more than $6 million in rental and mortgage assistance to keep families in their homes even in the face of financial hardship, and to make sure that landlords are made whole.

Building Futures and Roads2Work

The agency expanded its Building Futures and Roads2Work programs this year in order to help more low-income residents get the training they need to join in-demand middle class careers in trucking or the building trades, and committed more than $4.5 million to summer programs for young people that include wholesome camps for younger kids and graduation assistance and work readiness programs for older students.

Two new initiatives of the Job and Family Services department this year are programs to address maternal and infant health outcomes, and to provide young people with the tools they need to overcome chronic housing and financial instability.

Job and Family Services Department Initiatives

175,427

Food Assistance (SNAP) Recipients

422,774

Medicaid enrollees

9,929

Ohio Works First enrollees

23,840

Publicly funded childcare enrollees

Roads2Work graduates

Building Futures graduates

[email protected]

The pandemic’s effects led to job losses across the country and for every demographic, but women have been particularly hard-hit, and an unprecedented number of women have exited the workforce since spring of 2020.

Now that the economy is beginning to recover, women in the workforce do not seem to be sharing in that recovery and are finding it difficult to return to jobs that pay as much as they were making before. In 2021, the commissioners debuted a new program to help women rejoin the workforce following the pandemic called [email protected].

The [email protected] program is in partnership with the Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio and will provide Franklin County women whose jobs have been impacted by the pandemic with information on high-demand job opportunities, training, education, financial support, mental health support, and coaching sessions on career planning.

It will also bring women together for focused support to gain employment, career exploration activities, and individual career planning.

Office on Aging

The commissioners’ Office on Aging provides critical services to older residents, and its work has been especially important during the pandemic, which disproportionately affects the elderly.

Older adults have also suffered a disproportionate financial strain during the past two years, and many have found themselves becoming more and more isolated as social opportunities were cancelled due to safety concerns.

Throughout the pandemic, the Office on Aging has expanded its home-delivered meals service, and has partnered with Franklin County Public Health to ensure that seniors have access to COVID-19 vaccines and other healthcare. The agency also funded grants to help older residents access the internet for both social opportunities and to conduct day-to-day business without having to leave home.

Office of Aging Statistics

1,178,284

MILES OF TRANSPORTATION PROVIDED TO FRANKLIN COUNTY SENIORS

1,036,632

MEALS DELIVERED TO SENIORS AT HOME

74,892

HOURS OF HOUSEKEEPING PROVIDED TO SENIORS

77,330

HOUrs OF PERSONAL AND RESPITE CARE PROVIDED

10,853

SENIORS ENROLLED IN OFFICE ON AGING HOME CARE PROGRAMMING

Commissioner Crawley provides information about the Franklin County Office on Aging’s HOPE (Helping Our residents/families with Purposeful Engagement) campaign – a proactive effort to reach out to our senior residents about the services the Office on Aging offers the community.

Learning Lunchboxes

In 2020, the commissioners entered into a new partnership with the Center for Science and Industry, COSI, to provide entertaining educational activities to students throughout the community who had suddenly found themselves doing school at home and who had few opportunities to do things like visit COSI or participate in other educational activities.

The partnership worked with the Children’s Hunger Alliance to add a nutritional component, and Learning Lunchboxes were born. Delivered online and as hands-on kits in underserved neighborhoods where many homes do not have reliable internet access, Learning Lunchboxes help connect Franklin County kids to STEM learning and set them up for future success in the wider world.

In 2021, the partnership distributed almost 22,000 Learning Lunchboxes on topics such as Space (in collaboration with NASA), Dinosaurs, Energy (with the U.S. Department of Energy), and The Human Body.

Child Support Enforcement Agency Initiatives

Each county has a Child Support Enforcement Agency, which helps families by working to ensure that child support orders are followed so that children have the resources they need to thrive.

71,374

Open child support cases

80,519

Children supported

$159,258,124

2021 collections

Regular child support payments reduce child poverty, promote parental responsibility and involvement, and improve children’s educational outcomes, and the Franklin County Child Support Enforcement Agency uses innovative policies and programs to keep both parents engaged.